Lakers parade: Were we gouged?

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What again was the estimate on the cost of a Lakers parade?

Two million bucks?

Pittsburgh just announced they did it for less -- far less -- $72,600 of taxpayer money to be exact.

That was the cost of the parade celebrating the Penguins’ Stanley Cup victory, city officials said. And that was for a crowd estimated at 375,000; the crowd on the Lakers’ parade route was estimated at about 250,000.

(However, there was no accounting for the number of ‘knuckleheads’ in the Pittsburgh crowd, whereas LAPD Chief William J. Bratton said our parade had them in ‘several areas.’)

The breakdown in Pittsburgh: $52,184 for police overtime and regular pay and $20,408 for other public works expenses, including overtime pay and materials.

The cost of the Lakers parade, which started at Staples Center and ended at a rally attended by more than 90,000 at the Coliseum, was covered by Anschutz Enterainment Group, which owns Staples Center, and a collection of private donors.

--Mike Hiserman